The current password cannot be retrieved, since only the encrypted password is stored in the database, and the encryption is one-way. Thus a new password has to be generated if you lose your password.
The new password is generated by randomly selecting four strings from this array and concatenating them (function xoops_makepass in include/functions.php):
$syllables = array("er","in","tia","wol","fe","pre","vet","jo","nes","al",
"len","son","cha","ir","ler","bo","ok","tio","nar","sim",
"ple","bla","ten","toe","cho","co","lat","spe","ak","er",
"po","co","lor","pen","cil","li","ght","wh","at","the",
"he","ck","is","mam","bo","no","fi","ve","any","way",
"pol","iti","cs","ra","dio","sou","rce","sea","rch","pa",
"per","com","bo","sp","eak","st","fi","rst","gr","oup",
"boy","ea","gle","tr","ail","bi","ble","brb","pri","dee",
"kay","en","be","se");
"wh", "ak", "pen" and "is" are all in that array, so the result you got is possible, although statistically unlikely.
I guess the reason for using pronounceable syllables, rather than a string of random letters or digits, is to make the password easier to remember, while still being hard to guess.
Maybe your example is an argument for using random letters or digits.